India Pale Ales

[joecast]

kook,
saw a recipie on homebrew adventures (homebrew.com i think) for an extract SN celebration. looks simple enough, so i may use that or at least a slight variation. good luck with it.
joe

 

[Jovial_Monk]

A good traditional IPA is in the 1070-1090OG range, no sugar no grits no crystal
IBUs? Hard to calculate since the more hops you add the less bittering you extract out of them.

My trad IPA was 10K Oz lager malt, to keep the beer pale, wort boiled two hours with 410g whole Goldings. For yeast, Danstar Manchester.

I stuffed up the mash temp, it was 74C not my target 66C

I got 24L at 1084, perfect! Only attenuated to 1032, due to the high mash temp. All Sg samples tasted radical, BTW.

Racked at week one into a corny, shoved in 90g goldings as dryhop, shoved corny into my cellar where it will stay till June when the beer will be bottled, then put away for another few months--trad IPAs (1830s to 1850s) were not drunk till they were 12-14 months old.

The old Burton brewers ensured the beer attenuated right down: they could not risk fermentation continuing in the wooden barrels during the voyage to the tropics. Dryhops were added to the barrels to try and ward off infection, hence also the high alchol.

The barrels were shipped by canal from Burton to Hull. On the docks of Hull a small amount of cane sugar was added to the barrel, to keep the yeast active, again a measure to avoid infection. The barrels were filled 100%full, so any CO2 generated stayed in solution and did not form a pocket of gas and cause the barrel to explode.

Despite all this, a lot of IPA was bad by the time it reached its destination port.

As more and more Indian Civil Servants and soldiers returned to England they wanted their IPA. Since beer sold in England did not need to travel for months, and the brewers did not want to tie up capital in slowly maturing beer, IPA slowly descended in strength and bitterness and became what we now know as bitter.

The IPA guidelines these days describe a shadow of what a real IPA was.

Now, by the time a barrel of IPA reached its destination in India, Oz, NZ, Sth Africa and the US and was fit for drinking, the excessive bitterness had mellowed and the bittering compounds had turned into flavenoids. A very luscious beer. The Pacific NorthWest of the US still produces very hoppy beers for immediate drinking though a lot of the people there mature the bottles for a few years.

There is a book on IPAs by R Protz and C LaPensee available from CAMRA

IPA is a very fascinating subject on its own. It was the first true beer of the Industrial Age, and some of the famous first lager brewers got a lot of inspiration and information from touring Burton breweries.

Jovial Monk

 

[kook]

Well, I said I'd give feedback, so I will.

I'm pleased enough with the beer. Its hopped pretty much exactly to the point I wanted. Its balanced while its in your mouth, but with a really dry bitter hoppy aftertaste (almost sticky!). The hop combination (chinook and cascade) worked great.

Its very cloudy though, I'm not sure if I'll use WY1056 next time. It didnt flocculate anywhere near as well as previous brews of 1.050 gravity or less. At the moment the keg is sitting in the back of the fridge waiting in rotation for another to empty. Hopefully some more yeast will drop out between now and then.

I plan to brew another similar beer in a fortnight or so. I've got a heap of tasmanian cascade flowers to use up, so they should be fine for flavouring and aroma.

 

[Snow]

Kook,

it could possibly be cloudy because of the kilo of wheat malt you used. That's a fair bit, and the proteins would stay in suspension.

- Snow.

 

[wedge]

touche

 

[kook]

Well, I said I'd give feedback, so I will.

I'm pleased enough with the beer. Its hopped pretty much exactly to the point I wanted. Its balanced while its in your mouth, but with a really dry bitter hoppy aftertaste (almost sticky!). The hop combination (chinook and cascade) worked great.

Its very cloudy though, I'm not sure if I'll use WY1056 next time. It didnt flocculate anywhere near as well as previous brews of 1.050 gravity or less. At the moment the keg is sitting in the back of the fridge waiting in rotation for another to empty. Hopefully some more yeast will drop out between now and then.

More feedback on this brew:

Hop Hit IPA
AR: 7/10 AP: 3/5 FL: 7/10 PA 3/5: OV: 16/20 (Total 3.6/5)
Pours hazy orange-amber with medium, long lasting white head. OK lacing. Cascade (grapefruit, lychee, citrus) dominates aroma, with a touch of biscuity malt behind it. Smooth medium mouthfeel. Initial taste is sweet & fruity, though very hoppy. Just enough malt there to keep the citrus flavours from becoming too strong. Very dry bitter finish. Bitterness is not as clean as I had hoped for, though clean enough considering IBUs. Long lingering cascade flavour stays in the mouth. Its like LCPA on steroids. ABV totally masked. Top stuff.



As you can see, I like it! My next IPA is in primary at the moment, due to be racked this weekend. Its higher in IBUs, but I've tamed down the chinook and used centennial to bring up the bitterness. Also increased the ABV. The clarity has improved since last tasting, but its still pretty hazy. No yeast tastes like last time which is pleasing. I've only got about 1/5 of a keg of weizen to go before I leave this brew tapped I'll bottle some and bring it along to the west coast brewers meeting on monday if anyone wants to see how its improved since last months meeting.

 

[jayse]

sounds great kook.
one thing i found with mine like this is if you use northern brewer for the bittering hop (even along side chinnook if you like) you get a lot more complexity rather than all similar american hops.
i know you still get a lot of complexity out of these big beers but the NB does really well in these beers.

also another yeast option is london ale 1028 or notingham dry yeast.
i see irish ale has been mentioned but that is not a IPA yeast by a long shot being it subdues flavours esspecially hop flavour and is not dry enough.

anyway just my 2 bobs worth, jayse

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Now that I have a lovely bag of Maris Otter malt (thanks Darren ) I plan to brew an IPA very soon.
I will be using 100% MO and Challenger hops throughout, yeast will be Nottingham.
I will mash at 66C and boil for 90 minutes. Aiming for 1080 OG and 70 IBU.
Anyone think that this mash temp would be too low?

C&B
TDA

 

[Jovial_Monk]

The reason IPAs were fermented down to a low FG was not to keep bugs out, but to prevent the yeast chewing on remaining sugars during the voyage, thus exploding the barrels!

That that also increased the alcohol content was a bonus, but IPAs were really the small or as we now say light beers of the day! 1075 a light beer!

Jovial Monk

 

[jayse]

T.D.A, i don't have any experience yet with marris otter, got my first sack full here ready though.
Anyway i don't think 66c is too low this is what i mash my beers like this at. I haven't done one that big yet though.

Iam gunna do one along the same lines but only 1.060 and some fuggles aswell.
Will use notingham the same as you.

Cheers Jayse

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Mark, 66c is what I aimed at with my brew. these beers were made to attenuate right down. And OG 1080 is perfect for an IPA!

If you want the traditional pale color use half Maris Otter and half lager malt.

Jovial Monk

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Thanks JM, will go 100%MO which by the way has an EBC of 5.2.
If it's not pale enough I can always brew it again :lol:

C&B
TDA

 

[Gulf Brewery]

I will mash at 66C and boil for 90 minutes. Aiming for 1080 OG and 70 IBU.
Anyone think that this mash temp would be too low?

Hi TDA

I mashed mine last one that had 40IBU at 67 and it was too high, ended up with a bit too much mouthfeel for my liking and not balanced enough by the hops. I think that 66-67 range should be OK at 70IBU .

Cheers
Pedro

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Thanks for the input Pedro. 66C it is then.

C&B
TDA

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Amongst all the **** going down at my place on the weekend I managed to get an IPA on. I toned it down a little from what I was going to do.

Balltearer IPA

OG 1070
IBU 50

6.7kgs Maris Otter Pale Malt (Bairds)

30g Challenger 7% (60 min)
20g Challenger 7% (30 min)
30g Challenger 7% (15 min)
20g Challenger 7% (5 min)
20g Challenger 7% (0 min)

Nottingham Ale Yeast

I mashed at 66C and boiled for 90 minutes.

I missed the OG by 2 points and ended up with 1068. This was cause I didn't boil enough off but ended up with 2 litres more than I planned for.

I tasted jayse's Demon Ale last weekend and was extremely impressed, unbelievably full bodied and great bittering flavour.
Definately not a session beer though

C&B
TDA

 

[jayse]

Snipped
>Definately not a session beer though

Depends who your having a session with. :lol: :chug:
Your right though, even the version I made at 1.056 and 40 ibu is not a session beer, unless your insane like me. :blink:

Anyway look forward to tasting the I.P.A T.D.A.

Cheers Jayse